"We bought a few hundred face masks weeks ago as a precaution".

There's no getting around it: the corona virus has been dominating the agenda for days - and there's no end in sight. First dismissed in many places as scaremongering and click-mongering, concerns seem to be slowly but surely growing. Do companies need to react? If so: when - and how? Werbewoche.ch asked around the Swiss agency scene to find out how the creative industry is countering the impending pandemic.

Thomas Wildberger, Publicis Communications:

"We have taken the following measures until further notice:

• Those who are sick, feeling ill or unwell stay at home.
• "Work from home" is possible at any time or is made possible by additional laptops.
• All are free to attend or not attend larger meetings.
• Sufficient disinfectants are available in the agency.
• The cleaning crew cleans all the rooms, especially the toilets and surfaces, more and more every day.
• No travel to/from Italy, South Korea and China.
• Daily, global developments are communicated to countries from the group in Paris."

Corinne Hert, Comet

"The coronavirus is serious - as the flu epidemic was, however, we have not taken any action at the agency and do not plan to do so via the hand sanitizers we already have anyway."

Karin Estermann, Content and Form

"We have already set up disinfectant dispensers three weeks ago and have presented the hygienic rules of conduct (sneeze into the elbow, etc.). And, of course, we continue to follow how everything develops and are ready for further measures."

Michael Kamm, Agence Trio

"At the moment, we have not taken any measures as a result of the Corona virus and are operating normally; our national focus and clientele mitigate the risk to international networks. There are some question marks - for example, the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. We will be there, of course, but we will be guided by the decisions of the organizers. In the agency, the "normal Swiss" flu wave was a hot topic a few weeks ago and fortunately we have that behind us. It is very important to us, especially with aperitifs, to prevent viruses from entering the agency. As the oldest agency in Switzerland, we're staying cool and will survive this wave as well."

Parvez Sheik Fareed, PAM Advertising

"For the time being, we are only adapting our napkins for customer appointments in line with the pandemic. For further measures, we are in direct contact with the FOPH."

Christian Baertschi, Serviceplan Suisse

"Yes, we took measures early on. Specifically, we stocked up on disinfectants several weeks ago and bought several hundred face masks as a precaution - in black, of course. We have not only set up dispensers for disinfectants throughout the company, but have also actively pointed out to our colleagues on several occasions how important hand hygiene is. In addition, our employees have the possibility to communicate with the customers and the team remotely via virtual telephone solution and VPN in case of a further aggravation of the situation or in case of a possible infection. Recently, we have had the door handles and other exposed surfaces disinfected several times a day in the building."

Nico Ammann and Simon Rehsche, Home Zurich

"We washed our hands last weekend for a change. We no longer put our digital presentations all in our mouths before sending them out. And we're not proactively approaching hospitals as potential new customers at this time. In addition, we are asking our employees to stay home even more consistently than usual when they show signs of illness, and we also expect to hold more video conferences instead of physical meetings in the near future. "

Roman Hirsbrunner, Jung von Matt/Limmat

"We have provided information on recommended actions (coughing into tissues, into the crook of your arm, shaking hands as little as possible, etc.) and posted instructions on proper hand washing throughout the agency. We are also stocking up on hand sanitizer. And we have reminded employees to hold external meetings via phone when possible to avoid too much travel. We are looking into canceling larger meetings in general, both internal and external, in the coming days. All information will be communicated internally within the agency on a dedicated Slackchannel."